Our Story

We are eager and ready to support more refugee families in 2022. We work with vulnerable refugees who have been referred to Canada by the United Nations. They benefit greatly from a sponsorship group helping them meet their needs.

Stratford Welcomes Refugees (SWR) is a group of Stratford volunteers with varied backgrounds and skills. We came together initially in 2015 as part of the community response to the Syrian refugee crisis. With the assistance and support of the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario (MCCO), we facilitated community fundraising and helped establish and support sponsorship groups for seven refugee families.

Because there is an ongoing need in the world for assistance to refugees, and the BVOR program, which targets the most vulnerable families, has been reinstated, the group is moving forward again.

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With the support of donors and the community, SWR has committed to:

• Establish a partnership with the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario (MCCO)

• Oversee a community fundraising effort

• Recruit, support, and mentor sponsorship groups

• Arrange for the disbursement of funds raised to sponsorship groups

• Connect the sponsorship groups to the resources they need to support their refugee families

• Coordinate with other organizations supporting refugee settlement in Stratford

• Establish a communication strategy to inform and to receive input from the Stratford community about refugees in general, sponsorship supports, and the refugee experience in Stratford